Solicited by the Antitrust, the banks concerned have provided the requested answers. They were in fact over in the sights of the Authority Banca Sella, Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit, against which three separate proceedings had been opened for alleged unfair commercial practices in relation to the implementation methods of some important government measures to deal with the health emergency from Covid 19, envisaged by the Cura Italia Decree of March 2020 and by the Liquidity Decree of April 2020 in support of consumers and small businesses.
The Antitrust contested various irregularities: the absence of indications regarding the response times to requests for the suspension of mortgage and loan installments (envisaged by the Cura Italia Decree), to requests for loans guaranteed by the State up to 30.000 euros (envisaged by the Liquidity Decree), as well as approximately the fact that additional interest would have accrued with respect to the original amortization plan in the event of suspension of the installments; the obstacles placed in the way of small businesses interested in accessing the loan of up to 30.000 euros envisaged by the Liquidity Decree, by requesting, for example, to already be a customer or holder of a current account at the bank, or by not providing a response to loan requests or by not giving reasons the rejection of applications.
In the end, the three institutions quickly clarified their position, undertaking to publish on their websites, first of all, the maximum or average time frame for processing requests for a moratorium on installments and responses for the granting of guaranteed financing. Plus they have finally made the criteria used transparent and public for the evaluation of applications for disbursement of guaranteed loans, now also granted to non-customers or current account holders. Lastly, the banks undertook to indicate the reasons for the rejection of the request in any letters of refusal and to re-examine the rejected requests, in the light of the criteria for granting defined and made public. The Antitrust has therefore decided to close the investigation without sanctions.
According to the latest data provided by the Bank of Italy, as of 26 February, almost 1,3 million requests for suspension of loans by PMutuimi had arrived for 153 billion in loans and over 200.000 requests for suspension of installments on first home mortgages for a average amount of around 94.000 euros. Furthermore, as of 9 March there were more than 30.000 million requests for guaranteed loans of up to 1,1 euros, for a total financed amount of approximately 21,5 billion.
